Inside the mind of a felon: Inmate says prison is ‘like a jungle’

Sunday

The man who says law enforcement officers shot him 43 times will be serving time in prison until 2036.

He’s well known by law enforcement, court, and government officials in Onslow County for the numerous lawsuits pending against them and for surviving the video-captured shooting in 2014.

George Reynold Evans, 64, is now incarcerated at Tabor City Correctional Institution after being convicted of shooting his estranged wife on March 10, 2017. He's not slated to be released from prison until the age of 83.

But that’s not really where his story begins.

Evans told his story, from the shooting to what it’s like being in prison, during phone calls with The Daily News. The calls were cut to 15 minutes at a time and whether two calls could happen back-to back depended on whether any other prisoners were waiting for a turn.

This is his story.

The Olive Garden shooting

“Me and my wife had been having problems,” Evans began.

His wife, Audry Graham, had taken out a domestic violence protective order against him. Evans said divorce papers had been filed and wanted to discuss their cars, one of which she’d transferred into her name.

He just wanted to talk to Graham, he said.

Evans was walking in the area of Olive Garden off Western Boulevard in Jacksonville on March 30, 2014, and because he felt Jacksonville was a "racist town," Evans said he felt he should be armed at all times. He had a gun on him at that time.

He heard his wife’s voice as she was being accompanied to her car by another employee, Antoine Spates. Evans said Spates put Graham into the car and then approached him.

Spates made physical contact with Evans, he said, and during his trial Evans’ attorney Stuart Popkin told the court Evans considered Spates touching him on the chest an attack.

Evans pulled out his gun and told Spates to move.

“I went to talk to (Graham) and the whole situation just got out of hand,” Evans said.

His wife wouldn’t roll down the window to talk to him, so Evans said he tried to break the window with his gun. As he pulled his hand back the gun “went off and shot her.”

Evans said it was complete chaos and he wanted to get Graham’s attention, so he “shot a couple rounds up in the air.” Everyone else stopped running, but she ran inside.

Evans said he got into the car she’d been sitting in and left.

On the run

“I realized what I had done,” Evans said, going over what happened the day he shot his wife. “I had to get somewhere I could think.”

He left Olive Garden and started driving to South Carolina where Evans said he was trying to find some friends. On the phone he spoke with his youngest son, who told Evans to just focus on himself and staying safe.

Law enforcement tried to “play it off” like he’d stolen his wife’s car, Evans said. He found roadblocks in South Carolina and “by God’s grace” he was able to maneuver around them, he said, coming back into North Carolina and “then the chase was on.”

He said he thought about black drivers being shot and beaten by law enforcement.

“That was on my mind, my family was on my mind, my kids were on my mind,” Evans said. “It wasn’t about me anymore.”

His car started to slow in Columbus County and Evans said he thought he’d run out of gas.

He maneuvered the car onto the N.C. 74 median and Evans said he got out of the car fast, realizing he still had the gun in his hand. He raised his hands, he continued, and told law enforcement he was armed but would not shoot.

The video Evans posted on YouTube of the incident, captured from a patrol car, shows Evans walking backwards away from his car with his hands up while several law enforcement officers on both sides of the highway aim their guns toward him.

The Daily News reached out to the Columbus County Sheriff's Office for a copy of their dash camera video of the incident but the sheriff's office refused to release the footage. In addition, the office said Evans has not yet been to trial for charges against him in their county and has pending lawsuits against the office, and due to this they would not give a statement about the incident.

Evans walks backwards out of frame in his YouTube video, and then the shots begin.

Evans remembers hearing two shots ring out and remembers “thinking I’d never been shot before.” He hit the ground in the median.

“I remember a patrolman coming up to me and cutting my clothes off,” Evans said, and then he passed out.

He woke again feeling the blades of a helicopter rotating above him and remembers thinking that he was flying for the first time, and how awful it was that he wouldn’t be able to see anything.

Evans said the doctor told him the bullets had broken up inside of him and with 22 shots in his back and 21 shots to his front, he suffered two broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken wrist, and a broken shoulder blade.

His brain hemorrhaged and he had to learn how to feed himself again, Evans said.

“I still have three bullets in me,” he said. “I still feel pain from them but I’ve learned to adjust because in the department of corrections, they don’t give you anything for pain. God is taking care of me.”

A guilty verdict

“I am innocent,” Evans proclaimed during one of the first phone calls.

Evans was put on trial in March 2017 and faced attempted first-degree murder; assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflict serious injury; two counts of violating a domestic violence protective order; assault by pointing a gun; and felon in possession of a firearm.

His attorney, Stuart Popkin, argued that if Evans wanted Graham dead, he would have killed her the night before at her house when they spoke and Evans told Graham he wanted closure.

The jury found Evans guilty of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflict serious injury; assault by pointing a gun; two counts of domestic violence protective order violation; and felon in possession of a firearm.

He was found not guilty of attempted first degree murder, and the N.C. Department of Public Safety projects his release date from prison as Jan. 1, 2036.

He touches base with his loved ones during the week, gives them updates on how he’s doing, and sees his family every few months.

“I don’t like for them to see me like this, in this predicament,” Evans said.

It doesn’t seem like much time has gone by to him, Evans said. He’d heard about the eclipse happening on Aug. 21 and remembers when one happened when he was a kid, feeling the temperature drop, and hopes his son was able to experience the same thing. He hopes he’ll be out of prison for the next one, he said.

He gets to go outside for one-to-three hours a day where he’ll play basketball or soccer, where the prisoners get to “kind of relax,” he said.

“Most of the time when I go out I go out and talk to different people,” Evans said, adding that often it’ll be people who are housed in another area of the prison.

He watches nature taking its course, remembers traveling to the mountains and watching the leaves change color in the fall and how the trees become naked in the winter woods.

“It’s amazing how Mother Nature works,” he said.

It’s a lot different from the Onslow County Jail, with tighter security but more space at the same time, he said.

“I spent three years in the jail and the only time that I came out of that jail was when I had a doctor’s appointment,” Evans said. “It’s not healthy for you . . . no exercise, there’s nothing else there.”

Evans has also taken the time to read up on his case, like the 911 report called in after he was shot.

“The first time I read that I’m telling you I broke down and cried,” Evans said. “It bothered me even today. A lot of times I sit back and reflect back on it.”

He’s become more sympathetic, he said, and remembers Hurricane Harvey’s Texas destruction bringing tears to his eyes that he had to hide so other prisoners didn’t see him as weak.

Evans said he served nearly 10 years prior to this sentence when he’d served with a “bunch of real men” who taught him the ropes.

In 1977, he was convicted of armed robbery in New Hanover County. He was in prison for that offense from August 1977 until September 1989, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.

“It’s almost like a jungle and only the strong survive,” he said. “I pray a lot day and night and I just ask God for that protection.”

There used to be respect for older guys in prison but now “they don’t have respect for nobody,” Evans said. Men belong to various gangs and claim territory in prison. He’s seen stabbings and fights and officers assaulted, Evans said.

Evans said, “I survived 43 gunshot wounds,” and at this point he doesn’t know what it would take to kill him, and said it scares him.

Reporter Amanda Thames can be reached at 910-219-8467 or Amanda.Thames@JDNews.com

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